Early Enterprises...

Walt Disney was

born on December 5, 1901

inChicago Illinois, to his father Elias Disney, andmother Flora Call Disney.Walt had very early

interests in art

, he wouldoften sell drawings to neighbors to make extramoney. He pursued his art career, by

studying artand photography

by going to McKinley HighSchool in Chicago.Walt began to love, and appreciate nature andwildlife, and family and community, which were alarge part of agrarian living. Though his father could be quite stern, and often there was littlemoney, Walt was encouraged by his mother, andolder brother, Roy to pursue his talents.

Walt

oined the Red Cross

and was sent overseas to France,where he spent a year

driving an ambulance

and chauffeuringRed Cross officials.Once he returned from France, he wanted to pursue a career incommercial art, which soon lead to his experiments in animation.He began

producing short animated films for local businesses

,in Kansas City.By the time Walt had started to create

The Alice Comedies

, which was about a real girl and her adventures in an animated world, Walt ran out of money, and his company

augh-O-Grams

went bankrupted.Instead of giving up, Walt packed his suitcase and with his unfinished print of

The AliceComedies

in hand, headed for Hollywood to start a new business.The early flop of

The Alice Comedies

inoculated Walt against fear of failure; he had risked it allthree or four times in his life. Walt's brother,

Roy O. Disney and Walt borrowed an additional$500, and set up shop in their uncle's garage

. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first

Alice in Cartoonland(The Alice Comedies)

featurette, and the brothersexpanded their production operation to the rear of a Hollywood real estate office.On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees,Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho.